Explosive materials always consist of a fuel and an oxidizing agent that have to be present simultaneously. The fuels known so far usually contain carbon and hydrogen, while substances containing oxygen as well as fluorine or chlorine are used as the oxidizing agents. Civilian applications require that the reaction products released during the explosion must be environmentally safe and non-toxic. Hence, the use of substances containing oxygen as the oxidizing agent is preferred.
Known explosive materials that are based on this principle include, for example, black powder, a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and carbon, or else organic explosives such as trinitrotoluene (TNT).
All of these compositions or compounds, however, have drawbacks that limit their usefulness. Thus, for instance, the stoichiometry of one-component chemical compounds is defined by their chemical formula. As a rule, however, these compounds do not contain sufficient oxygen to ensure the total combustion of the carbon and hydrogen. This leads, among other things, to toxic reaction products such as, for example, carbon monoxide. Moreover, a critical mass of the chemical compound is needed in order to bring about an explosive reaction. Lastly, one-component systems cannot be adjusted in terms of their pyrotechnical properties, so that the addition of adjuvants and moderators is necessary.
In contrast, the pyrotechnical effect of explosive compositions consisting of several components depends on physical quantities such as, for instance, the particle size, the mixing ratio and the homogeneity of the components. Furthermore, after being manufactured by means of granulation, compression, extrusion or casting, all of these compositions have to be rendered into a manageable form. Moreover, these compositions often exhibit low structural strength.
It is known from Physical Review Letters 87/6 (2001), pp. 068301/1 to 068301/4 that a spontaneous explosion occurs when liquid oxygen is brought together with porous silicon that has been made by electrochemically etching silicon in an electrolyte containing hydrogen fluoride.
Adv. Mater., 2002, 14, No. 1, pp. 38 to 41 reports that a freshly made, porous silicon mixed with gadolinium nitrate (Gd(NO3)3.6H2O) can be made to explode through friction with a diamond tip or by an electrical spark discharge. The porous silicon mixed with gadolinium nitrate is used here as the source of energy for atom emission spectroscopy.
Thus, the invention is based on the objective of providing a stable explosive composition which can be manufactured inexpensively and can be used in particular for civilian applications and which can be integrated, if desired, in known components.